ISO PARTICIPATES IN ALBUQUERQUE 400-STUDENT ORCHESTRA

This past Saturday, Intermezzo String Orchestra took its annual trip down to Albuquerque to join some 400 Albuquerque violinists, violists, cellists, and bassists in the Albuquerque Middle-School Orchestra Festival.

The Festival is conducted by teachers of the Albuquerque middle-schools, and this year was held at the gym at El Dorado High School, since it's very difficult to fit 400 kids in any ordinary auditorium.
Each spring, Intermezzo takes no more than one rehearsal to learn the Festival music, both as a sight-reading exercise and to get a taste of the experience known to professionals as "being technically prepared, but maybe not situationally prepared." This way, students get to know that sometimes you must perform even if you aren't quite feeling ready.

This is Intermezzo's fifth year with the Albuquerque Middle-School Orchestra Festival.
- Karles McQuade, ISO Conductor

Photo: Abby Furlanetto, Hanbi Park, Itai Rosen, and Siena Tan rehearse with about 100 other violas in the ABQ Mid-School Orchestra Festival.